The State Barge Canal Will Cost $130,000,000 Including Real Estate and Terminals $ 1 9,800,000 Appropriated for Terminals. Nine in Manhattan, Two in the Bronx, Two in Brooklyn, but None in Queens Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens Recommends Four Terminals From New York Sun Sunday, March 8, 1914 ISSUED BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE of the BOROUGH OF QUEENS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/statebargecanalOOcham ' f ' H X !r 1 QS Is ' StWmi : ’ 5 ;a — The State Barge Canal From New York ^ un Sunday, March 8, 1914 The annual report of State Engineer John A. Bensel relative to the State Barge Canal shows that this great work is much nearer completion than is generally sup- posed. The report states that contracts to the amount of $82,000,000 have been let and that work to the amount of $63,000,000, or about 60 per cent, of all the work on the canal, which is to cost a little over $100, 000,000, exclusive of real estate and terminals, has been completed. So much has been printed about the Panama Canal that nearly every one has at least a general idea of where it is, what it is, its cost and the results which are expect- ed from it. On the other hand very few people even in New York State have anything but the most vague in- formation about the Barge Canal, notwithstanding that the benefits to the State in general and to the port of New York in particular will be many times greater than from the Panama Canal. In order to understand the relative size of the two canals a comparison of the main features is necessary. 3 In the first place the Barge Canal is 540 miles long, as compared to the fifty miles of the Panama Canal. It has 57 locks and 39 dams, while the Panama Canal has only 6 locks and 4 dams. The cost of the Barge Canal including terminals and real estate, will be approx- imately $130,000,000, as compared with $375,000,000 for the Panama Canal. Columns have been printed about the enormous amount of excavation and concrete in the Panama Canal, but the figures show that the Barge Canal will require considerably more than half the amount of excavation and concrete in the Panama Canal, the figures being 1 1 4,000, 000 cubic yards of excavation in the Barge Canal, as compared with 203,000,000 cubic yards in the Panama Canal, and 2,750,000 cubic yards of concrete in the Barge Canal, as compared with 5,000,000 cubic yards in the Panama Canal. Probably the most striking comparison, however, is shown by the fact that whereas the total lift of the Pan- ama Canal is only eighty-five feet the lift of the Barge Canal is 525 feet. In other words, a barge starting at tidewater from the port of New York will be 569 feet above sea level, or nearly as high as the top of the Singer Building, when it reaches Lake Erie, the actual lift in the locks being 525 feet and the difference of forty-four feet being the result of the natural flow of the water. 4 The barges not only finally reach an elevation of 569 feet, but they go up and down steps, as it were, on the way, climbing to a height of 2 1 1 feet at Schenec- tady and 420 feet at Rome, then down to the level of 363 feet at Syracuse and up again to 5 1 2 feet at Roch- ester, then on a level to Lockport, where they climb fifty feet and then on to Buffalo at the 569 foot level. From Syracuse the Oswego branch of the canal drops 1 19 feet to Lake Ontario, while the Lake Champlain branch climbs 140 feet from the Hudson River at Albany to Fort Edward and then drops forty-four feet to Lake Champlain. Barge Canal Tonnage Greater Than Combined Foreign Tonnage oj All Atlantic Ports Except New York- A comparison of the benefits to be derived by the port of New York from the Barge Canal with those which are expected from the Panama Canal brings out some facts so startling that if they were not backed up by State and Govern- ment reports they would be almost unbelievable. In the first place, it is estimated that the Barge Canal will carry right from the start a tonnage equal to the total tonnage which is expected to pass through the Pan- ama Canal. It is estimated that the Barge Canal, which has a capacity of from 20,000,000 to 30,- 5 000,000 tons per annum, will in the beginning handle at least 10,000,000 tons of freight a year, which is practically the same as the estimate for the Panama Canal. To understand what an enormous tonnage the Barge Canal will handle a comparison with the total foreign tonnage now entering the port of New York and the total foreign tonnage entering all of the other Atlantic ports is interesting: The foreign commerce entering this port now amounts to 1 3,673,000 tons a year. The total tonnage entering the ten next largest ports on the Atlantic coast amounts to 9, 1 47,000 tons a year. In other words, the tonnage through the Barge Canal in the beginning will amount to nearly 75 per cent of the entire foreign tonnage at this port and will be greater than the total foreign tonnage enter- ing the ten largest ports on the Atlantic coast exclusive of New York. In order to appreciate what an enormous amount 1 0,000,000 tons really is, a comparison with the same volume if handled by rail is interesting. Ten million tons would fill 333,333 freight cars hav- ing a capacity of thirty tons each, which would make a solid train 2,522 miles long. This train if moving at the average speed of freight trains, twenty miles an hour, would take over five days to pass a given point. 6 It would extend from New York to Chicago and back again, with enough cars left over to reach from New York to Cleveland. If 10,000,000 tons a year seems a large volume of business for the Barge Canal to handle it should be remembered that this amount, which is only one-third of its capacity, is small in comparison with the tonnage through the Soo Canal, the outlet of Lake Superior, through which 72,472,676 tons passed in 1912. When it is considered that the tonnage through the Panama Canal will be derived from not only all the ports of the United States but also from the principal ports all over the world it can be readily seen that the percentage of benefits which will accrue to any one port will be relatively small and that the increased tonnage by which the port of New York will be benefited will be relatively insignificant in comparison with the ton- nage from the Barge Canal. 41 Cents Per Ton by Barge Canal, $3.11 by Rail. As startling as are the facts relative to the tonnage of the State Barge Canal, even more astounding is the official statement of the cost of bringing freight through the canal from the great lakes to this port. The present average cost of carrying a ton 7 of freight by rail from Buffalo to New York is officially stated to be $1.96 a ton, whereas the cost of carrying freight by the Barge Canal is officially estimated to be only 26 cents a ton, a saving in actual cost of $1.70 a ton. On the 10,000,000 tons which the Barge Canal is expected to handle from the beginning this would amount to a saving of $17,000,000 a year. The foregoing statement, it should be remembered, is a comparison of the actual cost of carrying freight by rail and through the canal and is not a comparison of the charges made by the railroads and to be made through the canal. It is officially stated that the average charge for carrying a ton of freight from Buffalo to New York by rail is $3.11 and the charge by the Barge Canal between the same points, fig* uring on a liberal profit, is estimated to be only 41 cents a ton. There would therefore be a saving of $2.70 a ton, or a total saving on the 10,000,000 tons of $27,000,000 a year. It is hard to realize that a ton of freight can actually be brought from Buffalo to New York for 41 cents and pay a satisfactory profit to the carrier, but when it is understood that the new barges will have a maximum 8 capacity of 3,000 tons in comparison with 250 tons, the capacity of the present barges, and that the new barges will have two and a half times the speed of the old barges, the reason for the low cost is apparent. In other words, a 3,000 ton barge at the rate of 41 cents a ton would earn $1,230 for the trip from Buffalo to New York, a distance of 440 miles. On the other hand, a 250 ton barge could only earn at the same rate $102.50 for the trip, which would take two and a half times as long as the new barges. If 4 1 cents a ton seems very low for carrying freight by water from Buffalo to New York, a distance of 440 miles, it has only to be compared with the report of 1913 of the United States engineer in charge of the Soo Canal, which shows that the average cost of car- rying the 72,472,676 tons passing through the canal in 1912 for an average distance of 831 miles was 56 cents a ton. In other words, if the tonnage through the Soo Canal can be carried 83 1 miles at an average cost of 56 cents a ton it stands to reason that there will be a fair profit in carrying freight through the Barge Canal 440 miles for a charge of 4 1 cents a ton. Iron Ore Delivered at the Port of New York Cheaper Than at Pittsburgh. That the effect of bringing raw materials for 41 cents a ton from the great lakes, the greatest source of 9 cheap raw materials in the world, to New York, the greatest seaport and distributing point in the world, will be tremendous no one can doubt. That it is already attracting the attention of manufacturers is shown by Dr. Edward Ewing Pratt, head of the industrial bu- reau of the Merchants’ Association of New Y ork, who states that the completion of the New York State Barge Canal will make it possible for the port of New York to receive ore cheaper from the Lake Superior mines than Pittsburg, Lackawanna or South Bethle- hem can obtain their raw materials from their respective sources of supply. This can be readily understood when it is considered that iron ore for the Pittsburg furnaces must be brought from the Lake Superior mines by water to Lake Erie ports and then transferred to freight cars and shipped by rail to Pittsburg, whereas it will be possible to bring ore from the Lake Superior mines to the port of New York all the way by water. The Government report of the cost of carrying freight through the great lakes shows that the average is 67-100 mill a ton mile, at which rate it would cost 74 cents a ton to bring iron ore from the mines to Buffalo. If the charge of 41 cents through the Barge Canal is added it would make the rate for bringing the ore from the mines to New Y ork $1.15 a ton. 10 Inasmuch as the Government report is a statement of actual cost on the great lakes it would only be fair to add a fair profit, which would bring the total charge from the mines to the port of New York up to about $1.50 a ton. As compared to this, on steel manufac- tured at Pittsburg there is the cost of bringing the ore to that point by water and rail, to which must be added the freight charge of $2.65 a ton for bringing the steel to the port of New York. It would seem, therefore, that the above statement by the Merchants’ Association is absolutely correct, and there only remains to be figured out the actual dif- ference in favor of the port of New York. 20,000,000 Population Reached by New Waterway System. The bringing of raw materials at a low cost from the interior to the port of New York is not the only advan- tage which the Barge Canal will give manufacturers located at this port. Another advantage which may prove to be of incalculable value is that the canal pro- vides facilities for shipping to the interior at a low cost, products manufactured here from the raw materials ob- tained abroad. In order to appreciate the importance of this ad- vantage, it is only necessary to consider one of the most ll remarkable facts brought out in the last report of the State Engineer, in which there is a map showing that the territory within ten miles of the Barge Canal con- tains 82 per cent, of the total population of the State. In other words, the State of New York has an esti- mated population of 10,000,000, of which 8,200,000 live within ten miles of the Barge Canal. This does not include any part of the great lakes or the St. Lawrence River, which might properly be regarded as parts of the waterway system. If this territory were included, it would take in all the large cities on the great lakes and the St. Lawrence River and would include ap- proximately one-fifth of the population of the United States. In other words a manufacturer located at the port of New York, when the Barge Canal is completed, will have probably the lowest freight rate in the world to a population of 8,200,000 in the State of New York and to a total popu- lation of approximately 20,000,000, including the great lakes and the St. Lawrence River. 23,000 Feet of New ‘Docks Required in Greater New York- The State has appropriated $ 1 9,000,000 for Barge Canal terminals, which are to be selected by the Barge Canal Terminal Commission. 12 This commission evidently appreciates the enormous volume of business which will result from the opening of the canal, for it has recommended the establishment of approximately 23,000 feet of new docks for ter- minals in various parts of New York City. One of the most important recommendations is for a port of call, to be located in the Hudson River just south of the Harlem River, where it is proposed to break up the large tows coming down the Hudson River and distribute the barges from this as a central station. This port of call, which will begin 300 feet north of Dyckman Street, will extend northerly for a distance of approximately 2,300 feet to near the en- trance of the Harlem River. It is recommended that this section be improved by dredging to a depth of at least twelve feet of water, and that a suitable number of dolphins or pile clusters be provided to which barges may be attached. The commission also recommends for terminals, in addition to the 2,300 feet at the port of call, 9,406 feet in Manhattan, 3,630 feet in The Bronx, 6,300 feet on Gowanus Bay and 3,865 feet on Newtown Creek. Some idea of the water front required for each ter- minal may be learned from the fact that the recom- mendation is that there be acquired along the Hudson 13 River in Manhattan 960 feet of dockage near 135th Street, 980 feet near West Seventy-eighth Street, 1,400 feet in the vicinity of West Fifty-first Street, 1,560 feet near Gansevoort Street, and 1,700 feet near Vestry Street. On the East River it is recommended that 2,286 feet be acquired at the Canal Basin and 520 feet at Grand Street. In The Bronx it is recommended that 250 feet be acquired at Spuyten Duyvil, 1 ,920 feet at Sherman Creek, 860 feet at Mott Haven and 600 feet at East 136th Street. In Brooklyn it is recommended that 6,300 feet be acquired on Gowanus Bay, which, with the 3,865 feet on Newtown Creek, makes a total of 23,201 feet. No Barge Terminals in Queens Except at Flushing Bay and Jamaica Bay. The commission has failed so far to make any rec- ommendation for terminals in Queens, except at Flush- ing Bay and Jamaica Bay. When these improvements are completed, which will probably be many years from now, the Flushing Bay terminal will serve only a lim- ited territory in that vicinity, and the Jamaica Bay ter- minal is intended principally for trans-shipment by steamers. 14 It is true that the terminal at Greenpoint, on New- town Creek, although on the Brooklyn side, will serve both sides of the creek, but it is practically inaccessible by trucks from nine-tenths of Long Island City on ac- ► count of the Long Island Railroad yards and New- town Creek, which must be crossed to reach it. , In view of the marvelous growth of manu- facturing plants in Long Island City, and the further fact that it seems destined to be entirely covered with factories, warehouses and tene- ment houses for employees, it would seem as if the Terminal Commission has not properly recognized the demands of this rapidly growing section. Long Island City, which is identical with the First Ward of the Borough of Queens, comprises only 4,650 acres out of the 82,000 acres in that borough, but al- though it is only a small part of the total area it should be remembered that the East Side of Manhattan, in- cluding the district east of a line following Lexington Avenue to Fourteenth Street and Third Avenue south of that point, comprises only 2,767 acres and contains a population of 1,165,000, or almost exactly half the population of Manhattan. If Long Island City is to be in fact a duplicate of the East Side of Manhattan the thousands of factories and 15 warehouses and the enormous population that will ulti- mately live there will be poorly served by barge ter- minals south of the Long Island Railroad yards and across Newtown Creek. A more central location should be selected; in fact another barge terminal cen- trally located in Long Island City is absolutely neces- sary if this section is to receive its full share of the bene- fits from the canal. A barge terminal is nothing more or less than a freight station on the water-front, from which the public can truck freight arriving by canalboats, just the same as they do from freight stations on railroads. Long Island City is in the same relative position with respect to a barge terminal as it would be if the Long Island Railroad did not have a freight station there and all freight had to be trucked from Woodside or some other outside point. Large Manufacturers Must Have Cheap Land In the location of the barge canal terminals the com- mission seems not to have recognized one fact of the greatest importance, and that is manufacturing plants requiring any considerable amount of land cannot and will not locate in Manhattan nor in the built up sec- tions of Brooklyn. All such plants must have cheap 16 land, and the only place where cheap land can be ac- quired close to the heart of Manhattan is in Queens. No manufacturer will locate on land costing $10 a square foot in Manhattan when he can locate on land at $1 a square foot directly across the river, but he cannot locate on cheap land and get the benefit of the barge terminal rates unless his plant is on the water front or within trucking distance of a barge terminal. Manufacturing plants in Long Island City will have not only the advantage of cheap land but they will have the additional advantage of being within easy trucking distance of the heart of Manhattan, and no manufac- turing plant can afford to locate to-day anywhere with- out taking into consideration the automobile truck, which now plays such an important part in every industry. Although the city of New York in general and the Borough of Queens in particular does not seem to real- ize the tremendous importance of the State Barge Canal and its revolutionizing effect upon manufactur- ing at this port, the waterfront authorities in New Jer- sey seem to be fully alive to the situation, as shown by the fact that the New Jersey Harbor Commission in its report just issued shows plans for a barge canal ter- minal on Newark Bay between Elizabeth and New- 17 ark which will provide nearly twenty miles additional dock frontage. When it is considered that in all Greater New York only 23,000 feet, or less than five miles, are provided, not a foot of which is in the Borough of Queens, it can be readily seen that the benefits from the $130,000,000 expended for the Barge Canal by the State of New York will be to a considerable extent absorbed by the State of New Jersey unless something is done, and done quickly, to retain the benefits at home. When it is further considered that there are 224 miles of developed dockage in the city of New York and that over three miles of new wharfage is being added each year it is evident that the available water front suitable for large terminals will be entirely ab- sorbed before many years. If, therefore, the State of New York does not provide sufficient canal terminals at this port the city should provide them at its own ex- pense, on the same principle as that on which it has al- ready purchased and developed sixty-two miles of wharfage, now leased at a considerable profit over and above interest and sinking fund charges. 18 Queens Chamber Selects Locations for Barge Canal Terminals. Commerce Board Demands Freighting Facilities for Busy Industrial Districts of the Borough. Names Newton Creek, Hallett’s Cove, Bowery Bay and Flushing Creek as Desirable Points. [From New York Herald, Sunday, March 29, 1914] That Queens Borough shall participate in the benefits of the $101,000,000 State barge canal appropriation, as also in the $19,000,000 to be spent in terminals, is the demand of the Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens. As a first move toward strengthening this demand, at a joint meeting of the Industrial and Commerce committees of the Chamber held last week a resolution was adopted advocating the location of barge canal terminals in Queens Borough in the locations following : First — Newtown Creek, between Borden Avenue and Hunter’s Point Avenue, on the Dutch Kills Canal. t Second — East River, in Hallett’s Cove, near the foot of Jamaica Avenue. 19 Third — Bowery Bay, just east of Benrians Island. Fourth — Flushing Creek, between Jackson Avenue and the north shore division of the Long Island Railroad. These recommendations have been submitted to the Barge Canal Terminal Commission, to John A. Bensel, State Engineer ; to R. A. C. Smith, Dock Commissioner, and to Borough President Connolly, and a committee representing the Chamber will call upon the State Engineer and show him the existing necessity of locating these terminals in Queens at the points named, also to request that arrangements to construct such facilities may be made. A brief is now being prepared by Walter I. Willis, secretary of the Chamber, under the direction of C. G. M. Thomas, chairman of the Manufacturing Committee, and Captain Frederick Russell, chairman of the Com- merce Committee, containing reasons why barge canal terminals should be located at the points designated. This brief will show both the necessity and the superi- ority of these locations, the excellent railroad facilities afforded in conjunction therewith, the factories that will be benefited, the sections of Queens Borough and Long Island that will be benefited and the opportunities for future development that will result from such a location of the terminals proposed. A terminal in the Dutch Kills Canal, a tributary to Newtown Creek, would have direct connection with the 20 Long Island Railroad, and in addition to giving cheaper shipping facilities to the hundreds of factories in this section, would be of value not only to every section of Queens, but to all of Long Island. Also by direct connection with the connecting railroad it would be the shortest route from the West to serve all New England. In this immediate neighborhood the Degnon Terminal Company alone will erect modern factory buildings esti- mated to cost more than $30,000,000. Newtown Creek is known as the “busiest waterway of its size in the world,” and in 1910 the tonnage of its traffic was greater than the combined tonnage of all the canals of the State of New York. While a terminal is proposed for the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn on the south side of Newtown Creek, such a station is considered to be of but little value to the industries of Long Island City. A terminal on the East River in the vicinity of Hallet’s Cove, near the foot of Jamaica Avenue, would serve not only all the factories that now line the East River shore for a distance of almost four miles, but would be centrally located and midway between the mouth of Newtown Creek and the beginning of Long Island City, and not be further away than ten or fifteen minutes time of travel by automobile truck to the most distant factory. A terminal on Bowery Bay, just east of Berrian’s Island, would have a strategical location, less than three miles from the mouth of the Harlem ship canal. Here 21 * barge canal boats coming from the North River to the East River could unload their cargoes without having to travel many miles to the south on the East River. A terminal on Flushing Creek between Jackson Avenue and the North Shore division of the Long Island Railroad would be of value not only to the entire North side of Long Island, but with the straightening and widening of Flushing Creek, arrangements for which are now progressing rapidly, would enable barge canal boats to bring such commodities as coal, lumber, building supplies, &c., to Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Forest Hill, Newtown, and in fact to serve the whole centre of Long Island. In this vicinity millions of dollars have been spent within the last few years in developing the meadow land. 22 Barge Canal Terminals recommended by the Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens.